week 4

              For this week’s blog I will focus solely on the Solingen article. Solingen (2011) was very informative with their article on how to work with clients that may be facing career indecision using a constructivist standpoint. Career indecision is something that everybody goes through at some point in their life, and perhaps on more than one occasion. I am still not exactly sure what I’d like to do with my master’s, but I do know that I want to work in some sort of clinical setting. I will not really be sure of which population I want to work with until I get to explore my options more. At times I can get stressed out with the “unknowing” aspect, but then I always remind myself that nothing in life is certain, and I have nothing by time to straighten it all out.

                There were quite a few areas in the reading that really stood out to me. First, Soldingen (2011) talks about other research stating that undecided students are less accomplished and mature than decided students. I was a little taken back by that statement. I do not agree with that statement at all. I think that undecided student are merely aware of the vast amount of opportunities that they are presented with and have a difficult time choosing what they want to do with the rest of their life. I think that planning your career at such a young age is a very stressful time for these adolescents. I remember having a list of 10 or so career fields that I would have loved to try out. However, since money and time are a limited resource I narrowed my choice down to psychology. That doesn't mean that I still wouldn't want to train dolphins someday, and maybe a few years down the road I will.

                Secondly, I really enjoyed the quote, “Choices are not isolated; choices are embedded with an ongoing pattern of living.” (Solingen 2011) This quote made me identify with constructivist counseling even more due to the fact that the focus on the individual that is undecided not the indecision itself. If someday, I were to be a career counselor, I would utilize this approach. I think it is important to make students aware of the endless options and possibilities that they have available and then help them narrow down the choices to what fit within their unique abilities and interests.

Solingen, E. (2011). constructivist counseling for career indecision. The Career Development Quarterly.